Some quality time

Amazingly enough, today I got to spend some truly quality time with a few animals. Aside from the usual cleaning there were very few showings, in fact, none that I did myself, so it left time to hang with some of our residents.

After I did a load of laundry I decided to stock up the cattery with some towels and cat beds. Of course while I was in there I decided to hang out with one of my favorite cats Molly. The cattery is a funny thing, it kind of works on seniority in there and if you have been here for a while the cats tend to get more space to roam free. Such is the case with Molly who has her own room with a giant window to gaze out at the world. I'm not exactly sure how long she has been here but I do know that she is the friendliest cat I have ever met, sometimes a little too friendly. When I went into her room she immediately started talking and when I sat down she jumped right up in my lap and started purring. Then came the cleaning of my jacket. I have to say a cat's tongue on a wind breaker is pretty similar to fingernails on a chalk board. She ended up just laying in my lap for a good fifteen minutes and purring until I figured there had to be something I could do at the shelter. Overall it was incredibly relaxing to hang out with my favorite feline friend Molly, here is a pic of her laying on my lap, a little blurry but it's tough to get a cat to stay still when they are trying to clean you.

The rest of the day was pretty routine. We, as always, needed to make sure that all of the special feedings animals got taken care of as well as all the rest. Wednesdays you always have to make a little extra to put aside for the surgery dogs that haven't eaten in the past twelve hours but nothing else special about dishing out the food today. It is pretty funny to see customers faces perk up when they think a dog is barking at them just to learn that it's actually because the food bucket is making its way around.

Closing out the day it was time to bring all of the dogs out for their break. For some reason though we had a lot of "LOOSE DOG" calls. It seems when it rains it pours. I think I counted a total of about five dogs that got out today. On top of this, at one point I was carrying a small chihuahua from the new second chance dogs while holding another two on leashes, as I was trying to get out of the yard where they were kept another staff member was taking care of the other three. Unfortunately my chuck taylor's snagged on the bottom of the fence, tore a huge hole, and of course I went flying backwards straight on my butt. Luckily no dogs were harmed, just my ego. Lots of excitement for a simple task of bringing dogs up from their break yards.

Of course it wouldn't be a Wednesday without some cute surgery pictures. These are a few of the guys that got altered today and were still not quite sure what the heck was going on. Thanks for reading everyone and I look forward to your comments, oh yeah, I had to add another picture of my favorite little mange puppies and their mom in the world.

Not the way I like to start the morning

I usually don't start out with a picture but today it seemed fitting. When I first came in today I figured I might as well get right to it and as soon as I saw the first kennel I was about to clean I nearly gagged. Apparently the 65 pound dog that was staying there got a little jumpy last night but not before pooping a few times. What this means is that there was some nice artwork painted all over the kennel, as you can see from the picture. Just be thankful that computers have yet to perfect the smell o vision because it was pretty rank.

Once all of the morning cleaning was done it was time for, you guessed it, more cleaning. There are those Tuesdays when you are incredibly busy with showings but unfortunately today was not one of those days. Even though I would have loved to have seen some adoptions it was nice to have the time to catch up on the necessities and even get to spend some quality time with the animals.

The next thing on the to do list for cleaning on the day was to disinfect all of the crates that our behaviorist had used the day before to bring back the second chance dogs. This can be a pretty daunting task but luckily we had three people attack it and knocked it out rather quickly. There were those nasty parts those where you would find some swollen ticks and of course a little vomit from the four hour long adventure to make it to the shelter.

During the week there is always the weekly cleaning assignments. Today was no different but at least a little easier, and more pleasant, than Monday poop buckets. The assignment today was cleaning and organizing the cattery. This includes vacuuming out the sliding door tracks because litter accumulates very fast, washing the windows, and organizing the cabinets. This sounds like it can be done very quickly but with three separate rooms it took up quite a bit of time, luckily though we had a few staff members tackle it together and get it done in a timely fashion.

Personally I didn't have any showings today, I did however help out a Spanish speaking gentleman with some cats. I am always amazed that I am the one that speaks the most Espanol her at the shelter because I really can't speak it that well. Luckily though as long as you try people are willing to work with you, and if I speak a little Spanish and they speak a little English we can usually get our messages across.

With everything pretty much done I had some time to hang with the animals. Of course I am going to hang with the new guys to see how they are but there is only so much bad smell that you can take. I know that sounds horrible but being gone for so long I think I got my sense of smell back.

One dog I payed particular attention to was a little terrier mix that literally looks like Benji. The only bad part is we had to separate her to ISO because of the amount of nasal discharge that she has. This could mean several things but until we can separate her and monitor her eating habits it might be tough to see what direction of treatment and testing is necessary. I do know that she is incredibly sweet and loves to be loved so hopefully we can start some sort of treatment on her soon and get her adopted come Saturday. Here are a few pictures of the cutie just so you have an idea of why I became so attached.

Well, hopefully tomorrow I can write about some great adoption stories and not about cleaning, but it is what it is. As always I appreciate your comments and keep them coming. Thanks for reading and of course thanks for helping out the animals.

A week away but it felt like a month

Well, I am finally back from my vacation and back at it again at the shelter. It's tough coming back to work after being off for so long, especially trying to play catch up on all of the new adoptions and animals. I think the toughest thing though was getting used to the smells again.

The first thing I did when I got in was read the board to learn that there were a lot of cat adoptions while I was gone, I think the total was about five. I also found out that a few dogs got to go home as well. It's nice to see so many adoptions on a holiday week, I just hope that all of those adopters kept their animals close during the holiday and didn't leave them unattended while they adjust to their new homes.

My first order of business at the shelter, besides cleaning, was to find out what new animals we have. I learned quickly that we were pretty low but our behaviorist was heading out to round up a new batch. I did see a mom and her three pups in one of the kennels. This was not your typical family though, apparently all of the puppies have a form of mange that isn't contagious but certainly needs some attention. Aside from being pretty pink, having little hair, and a few scabs these little guys seem very happy and they are certainly growing on my. Here is a picture of the group below.

I felt today that I never got into a routine. After being off for so long it seemed like everything was new. Luckily it was a Monday and we were pretty slow otherwise I'm sure I would have been more flustered. I was a little nervous going into my only showing of the day. For one thing I didn't know to much about the dog I was going to be showing and the other I hadn't even thought about doing a showing for an entire week. Luckily the potential adopter would be a perfect home for any of our animals. She ended up wanting to see out bull dog mix Chica who came to us from another shelter. The showing went great but the tough part is yet to come, an introduction with her pit mix.

Later in the day the woman returned with her dog. We did the initial interaction and everything seemed fine. Once down in the yard both dogs were pretty much ignoring each other. After a while though they did show some interest and Chica even play bowed before trying to dominate the woman's dog. When all the hair on both dogs backs were standing up it was time to calm them down. What I got from the showing is that Chica just has no idea how to play, probably because of under-socializing but there could be something else there. I don't think the interaction was a complete loss, I suggested that the woman come back again and try it on another day when both dogs can be a little more at ease.

Closing out the day our behaviorists arrived with the new dogs, fourteen of them to be exact, a new record. As usual all of them were incredibly cute and seemed like they had good temperaments. I'm looking forward to hanging out with them tomorrow and getting to know them better.

As always thanks for reading everyone, I look forward to your comments and of course thanks to all of you out there that help out the animals. I had to add this one last picture I took last week of the hair dog our med staff made after brushing one of the new guys, check out the hand next to it for scale.

A change of pace

There have been those days where I have helped out in surgery but today was a little different back in the med room. Today I helped with intakes of the new second chance dogs along with a few rabbits that came in as well.

My day started with helping out with the morning meds. This is usually pretty quick but when you have a group of ten new arrivals that test positive for ghiardia you have to administer panacur, a de wormer, to all of them. This sounds easy but it's in powder form so first you have to mix it into wet food than try to get every one of these new dogs to eat all of it. Eventually we were able to finish but not before we got pooed by the little dogs paws. Luckily this is only once a day so hopefully by the time I go home I won't smell as bad.

Next it was a matter of getting ready for the intakes. This is a pretty simple process of cleaning up the med room, laying down a nice comfortable blanket, and getting some cream cheese and dog treats ready for the new arrivals. Once all of the that was done it was time to get the syringes ready for blood draw which included running an anti coagulant through them to make sure the blood flowed freely for the test we were going to perform. Then of course we actually had to get all of the tests ready. They are a simple snap test to check for a few things including heart worms and erlichia, a tick born disease pretty common in these animals. In addition to this we had to get all of the microchips and scanners ready as well.

Now it was time to start bringing in the dogs. I have to say, this group was very cooperative. After going through a "tutorial" on blood draw it was my turn. After a few failed attempts I was able to draw enough and got the hang of it by the end. In fact by the last one I didn't even blow the vein. I still feel bad for the majority of the little guys that now have both of their legs shaved because of blood draw.

Once the blood was drawn it was mixed with a solution then put on the snap tests. You have to wait about a minute, without taking your eyes off of it, until the blood runs down to a certain point then you click the test. Unfortunately one of the tests came back positive which means we have to to a jugular draw and send the blood work out to the lab. Hopefully the animal was just exposed to it because you never want to see a sweet dog like this go through anything difficult.

Of course on top of all of this we also had to microchip all of these animals. It's a pretty simple procedure but when you actually see the size of the syringe compared to some of these dogs you are amazed that you can actually do it. Luckily, like I said before, this group was amazing and we only had one screamer. I really can't explain how loud it was except for the fact that everyone was a little dazed afterwards.

Closing out it was time to do the rabbit intakes. I pretty much remember weighing the little guys and that's about it. When you are confined in an eight by eight room with ten or so rabbits with the door closed your mind tends to get a bit hazy. Weather you are allergic or not, the amount of hair and dander in this room was crazy. Luckily fresh air was waiting for us, along with a lint brush, and the intake was over. If I hear of what actually went on in there I'll let you know.

Thanks for reading everyone and the picture up top is a sweet little puppy named Digit that we brought in from another shelter. The picture isn't great but the underbite on this guy is hilarious.

Wow, is that for real!

I'm going to keep this blog short and sweet and skip all of the crap about cleaning. I know that it is a good portion of what we do here but I know it gets pretty repetitive when you read it every day and for me when I actually do it every day then come home and write about it.

Once the doors opened I was once again expecting a crowd since we still had our little ten week old poodle puppy up for adoption. The reason she didn't go yesterday is because our policy states that everyone in the household has to meet the animal. This can be difficult sometime when an animal becomes available during the week and there are several people who either work or go to school that are unable to come in. We did have a lot of really good families come in to meet but in the end it's the one that fits best that will ultimately get this new addition to their family. I do have to say I felt really bad for a young girl that came in with their mom and spent a good amount of time with the dog just for us to tell them that they cannot adopt until their father meets as well. I know it sounds a little cruel but there are reasons for our policy and we just want to make sure that this is going to be the perfect fit that will last a lifetime.

I was actually surprised how slow it was today which meant that I got to hang out with some animals until I was called to help out with a showing. I ended up having to use my Spanish to get rental agreement. The tough part is, I don't speak that much Spanish but I can get by. Eventually I got that the family could have the second dog and the adoption was a go. I just hope my interpretation was right and this dog doesn't get returned.

Closing out the day we had gotten a new bunnie relinquished to us. This are few and far between but this rabbit was especially sweet when I petted him in his cage. The big surprise came when I pulled him out and learned that we needed to trim his nails. I have never seen anything like this and I have to say I was shocked to see an animal go neglected in this way. I don't want to go on a rant but at least the animal is in our care now and hopefully a little more comfortable. Here is a picture so you can see for your self.

I'll be writing in a few more times this week because I am doubling up on shifts to take a nice holiday with my family. Thanks again for all who read and of course a special thanks to all who help out in shelters.

A trend I like to see

I like starting my day out knowing that you have a full staff and that there are no worries about getting all of the morning cleaning done. Of course since we got in a large group of new dogs I was lazy and signed up for cats and rabbits again. I know, I know, I actually feel a little guilty about not stepping up but every once in a while I like to steer away from lots of poop.

Again the cats were a breeze to clean up in the morning and there was plenty of time to make it over to the rabbitat where another staff member had already started cleaning. Like I said before, it's nice having a full staff and know that you aren't going to be in a rush to get everything finished in time for opening. After the rabbits were done we quickly knocked out the laundry, dishes, and garbage with time to spare.

After our morning meeting it was time to hit the ground running. Today it was decided that we were all going to pay particular attention to the special needs dogs and work on making them more adoptable. Another staff member and myself decided to hang out with our crazy puppy Waylin who we have been working hard on making more adoptable and of course more socialized. We ended up grabbing a new arrival named Mollie who we heard got along great with him and went down to one of the large play yards. It ended up being a half hour long play session where both dogs had a blast and never really got out of control. It was good to see that there are dogs that this little puppy can get along with and it gives me hope of finding him not only a new home but maybe a sibling as well. Here's a picture of the ruckus below.

After logging our experience with the two dogs in a folder to make sure we are monitoring progress I learned of another showing with a truly long term animal in the shelter. The showing was with Kissy our overweight cat who has graced us with her presence for the last year. There are a lot of factors that play in to an animal staying here for so long including age, breed, and of course looks. All of these combined made it difficult for people to look past and see the animal that the entire staff fell in love with. In any case, that perfect household came along and Kissy was exactly what they were looking for. I also think people in general feel good about adopting an animal that has been in a shelter for so long, it's really a win win situation. Anyways, I digress, Kissy got adopted! I hope that the trend continues and all of our older guys get to find their forever homes soon as well.

Closing out the day we had a group of Kids Community Service volunteers come into the shelter to help out. This is the program that helps educate people on what a shelter really does and how it benefits the community and of course the animals. Once again, working on as many things as possible to make sure that we are doing our part to help out the animals in the long run. Thanks for reading everyone and as Bob Barker always said, "remember to have your pets spayed or neutered".

Great way to end the day

I got to work early today and when that happens I take my pick at what I want to clean. Since it was a little chilly out I took the low road and went for the cats and rabbits. I was surprised to see how few cats there actually were in the cattery due to all of the adoptions that have taken place in the past week or so.

It was quite easy work to get all of the cats fed and their litter boxes changed. Once I was finished I headed over to the rabbitat to get started there. I had almost forgotten that one of the bunnies had been adopted yesterday as well. I have been at the shelter for a little while now and this is the first time that I am seeing a steady flow of adoptions, not sure why but I will take it with a big smile on my face.

Once all of the animals were fed and taken care of this morning it was time for the garbage, laundry, and of course dishes. I was surprised to see very little of everything, once again because we have had so many adoptions recently there are fewer things to pick up after them.

The doors opened and of course we were pretty slow. Rather than make the day pass by slow everyone hit the ground running, especially because we had to prepare for the arrival of eleven new second chance dogs. I started by getting the kitchen organized while other staff members disinfected the runs the new dogs would go to along with changing out all of their poop buckets. In addition to all of this we had to set up the six kennels where all of the new guys were to be held.

While all of this was going on there were a few showings and my was with a Kelly, our resident Grandma. It was a good showing with a woman who recently adopted from us and was looking to add to her flock. Kelly's age and medical concerns didn't bother the woman too much but she wanted to make sure that both dogs got along. Since she lived so close she headed home to get her "daughter" and was back in a flash. The showing went alright, they ignored each other more than anything. Unfortunately the woman wasn't all that thrilled about how things went and said she would think about it.

Later in the day the front desk was a little short handed so periodically kennel staff would go up there to help out. The first call I took was with a nice English woman once again asking about Kelly. I answered her questions and explained everything that I could, all I can say is I was amazed at how much attention our little old lady was getting.

Of course this was the only call that put a smile on my face while I was up at the front desk. I covered a lunch up there and was pretty surprised at some of the questions that were thrown my way via phone calls. The first was a woman who asked what she should do because her dog had eaten a lot of gummy worms and lactose pills. Besides not being qualified to answer this the phone seemed to be ringing off the hook with other questions that needed to be directed elsewhere. Once I got all of the lined answered I told the woman she should call her vet and that we weren't qualified to give her advice, she then said she thought she was calling the vet. That was enough excitement for me and thank goodness our front desk associate was back to take it over, I think I'll stick to the dogs.

Later in the afternoon all of the dogs arrived and of course everyone had to go and look. In addition to these eleven we also got number twelve from another shelter. Now this girl looks like something straight out of a comic book. Check out the picture for yourself. All of the new dogs seem very friendly and it's good to have a full house again. I know it's easier to clean up after less dogs but I really feel bad knowing that we have the space and ability to take care of more dogs.

Closing out my day the English woman I had spoken to earlier in the day had come in with her husband to take a look at Kelly. I went over their application and the thought came to my mind that I wish all of them looked like this. They were looking for a mellow dog that would get along with visitors and not be nippy. They didn't have any children and treated their animals as such. Once in the showing they absolutely fell in love. I left them alone for a bit and came back to Kelly laying on the woman's lap. It was a go! I couldn't have ended the day in a better way. I am so happy that our little Grandma found the perfect home and a family that will enjoy having a wonderful senior pet.

Thanks for reading everyone and if you aren't already following I would appreciate the support. The more education we can spread about these wonderful shelter animals the better. I look forward to your comments.